Electronic document publishing often demands more than a stack of paper in an output tray of an office printer. Typically, a plurality of duplex printed sheets are bound into finished documents by a publishing system that prints and finishes books. Publishing systems perform operations such as collating, binding, folding, trimming, stapling, hole drilling, etc. These finishing operations are typically performed on all of the sheets in a book at one time, which generally requires the use of high forces, powerful motors, and dangerous cutting devices. Consequently, the systems adapted to perform these functions are relatively expensive and often exceed the cost of other desktop or office printers. As such, known publishing systems are not generally well suited for use in low-cost desktop bookmaking.
Other typical publishing systems incorporate sheetwise operations, which are performed on individual sheets that are later accumulated or stacked to form the document. As such, sheets are individually trimmed, scored, etc. before finally being collated into a stack for folding and stapling. Although using sheetwise operations within the publishing system generally decreases the finishing forces, the motor power, etc. required by the publishing system, processed sheets are generally stacked and folded in subsequent finishing operations, which generally requires a relatively large footprint or height of the publishing system. Since desktop or office space is typically at a premium, a need exists for a publishing system that decreases forces and motor power needed to publish a book while providing a compact system suitable for use with office printers and for methods associated therewith.